Judge Approves Surcharge to Make NYC Taxis Wheelchair Accessible

The years-long battle to make New York’s taxi fleet more accessible to people with disabilities officially came to an end on Tuesday when a judge approved a plan to make half of the city’s yellow cabs wheelchair accessible by 2020. The plan, which the Taxi and Limousine Commission approved in April, will implement a 30-cent surcharge for all fares starting in 2015 to fund the purchase of 7,500 new cabs. Currently there are only about 600 wheelchair-accessible cabs in the 13,000 car fleet. Manhattan federal Judge George Daniels called the measure “one of the most significant acts of inclusion in this city since Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers,” and said it “makes us a bettercity.”